Recent Reading

Music Database

Not much to say here. The
Pending list is down to five albums,
including this week's three arrivals. The new Free Radicals album spent
several days in the CD changer, finally replaced by some golden oldies --
Swamp Dogg's
"We Need a Revolution" emerged as the perfect soundtrack
for reading Bernie Sanders Our Revolution. I was delighted enough
by the new Free Radicals album I went back and checked out their five
previous albums. Houston band with many hangers-on, similar to Boston's
Club D'Elf though less into world music and more into hip-hop.

Aside from Free Radicals, only three more records were reviewed from
CD (or CDR), including Chris Pasin's Xmas album, release date October 6.
So I spent most of the week scrounging around on Napster, checking out
various pop albums including Amber Coffman and Bleachers -- recommended
last Friday in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness. Having given Lorde's Melodrama an A-, and
Dirty Projectors a C (fairly generous I thought), I've rarely
found an EW more out of sync with my ears. Nor did other well-regarded
recent albums turn out to be very appealing. I even slogged through
The Bob's Burgers Music Album, recommended high in
Matt Rice's Mid-Year Top 30 (five more albums I haven't heard on
that list, though I'm not in a big hurry to get to At the Drive-In).

One thing I looked for was William Parker's Quartets album
(reviewed
here by Tim Niland). I didn't find it, but did notice several
Parker albums I hadn't heard, especially on the Italian Splasc(H)
label, which led me to the albums by Matthew Shipp, Hamid Drake,
Daniel Carter, Albert Beger, and Willem Breuker. I gave up on the
latter when two Penguin Guide ***(*) records didn't pan out.

Finally, I broke down and started playing some of the downloads
I had picked up over the year, including very well regarded albums
by Craig Taborn and Harriet Tubman (number two on
Chris Monsen's 2017 Favorites list, and number three for
Phil Overeem). I still have a couple dozen on the computer, and
probably more untapped in my mail files, so I should keep plugging
away at this. Playing the new Tomasz Stanko as I write this. Should
also see what else (aside from the Mat Maneri) Clean Feed didn't
send me.

I'll also note my surprise that both Overeem and Rice are big
fans of Zeal & Ardor's Devil Is Fine (number 1 and 2,
respectively). Christgau liked the album back in
April, and even I gave the record a B+(***) in
May, noting: "fuses black
field hollers (or chain gang chants) with black metal (and a little
xylophone) -- a fairly amusing rather than overbearing combination."
Also, I should issue a correction: Overeem lists (at 12) Dalava:
The Book of Transfigurations, which
last month I incorrectly
identified as "self-released." The label is Songlines.

New records rated this week:

Bleachers: Gone Now (2017, RCA): [r]: B+(*)

Brother Ali: All the Beauty in This Whole Life (2017, Rhymesayers): [r]: B+(**)